An Old Shop Teacher is Passing

I know this is probably in the wrong place, but please bear with me.My wife left East Central Texas a week and a half ago to visit with her father (86) and her mom, (84) {Or maybe it’s 39}. She went because her dad was diagnosed with stage four cancer and had dropped about 60 lbs. from his fighting weight of 135.Her mom is a great southern lady and had to go in for triple bypass surgery…. she’s been in A-fib about 3 or 4 times now since the surgery.The wife’s dad often doesn’t know who she is, and at times becomes so hateful and spiteful that he’s not anything close to himself. He almost can’t even read anymore and can’t write at all.

He was at one time in a former life, the owner of a gas station in Pinebluff, NC when US 1 was only a two lane track. Later he went on to become a woodshop teacher at the local High School, (Aberdeen, NC) and taught many a young man how to make a saw cut straight, how to figure and angle and how to make a living. He knew more about power tools, hand tools and craftsmanship than just about any man I’ve ever met.

Maybe you were one of those young men that he taught.

His name is Billy Carpenter, and will soon not be with us anymore. It will be a great loss of a real teacher, a great man and a personal friend.

-- Improvise.... Adapt...... Overcome!

6 replies so far

He is obviously well-loved. These things are never easy, nor should they be, really. It’s good, though, that his life ‘mattered’ to so many. What more can be said of a man’s life, than that he touched so many others in a good way?Thanks for sharing your tribute. And God bless.